The Final Fantasy XIV localization has a distinct character to it, part of what makes the story and its characters so memorable for fans. But moving into the relaunch, translation director Michael Christopher Koji Fox describes the attitude in the localization department as despondent. After all, the game flopped hard on launch, and even if they could successfully improve there was no way of being certain that the public would respond to a second launch of the game. But he also said that Naoki Yoshida’s belief in the team produced a sort of “weird euphoria” in the trenches:
We were getting a chance at redemption, and there is nothing like falling off a cliff and surviving to cure someone of their fear of heights.
Koji Fox describes how the team worked hard to give each of the major regions in Eorzea its own distinct dialogue, while further enriching and expanding the world by making careful use of flavor text for items. After all, just stating that a Bronze Sword is a sword made out of bronze is probably unnecessary; creating lore helps enrich the world and keep things stuck in player memories. He also realizes that this has made more work for the team, and that localization has gotten easier in recent year but is still an art of tight deadlines and quick turnarounds. It’s a fascinating look behind the scenes of the game when it was first relaunching… a relaunch that clearly worked, with the 10-year mark coming in August.
Advertisement
